Connecting with Customers using Direct-Contact Social Business Forums

Forums are quickly proving to be the most effective
method astute business leaders have to connect with their
customers. As social media consumes an ever larger share of
the public's attention, with 75% of all U.S. households
plugged into one social network or another, it only makes
sense that customer-focused organizations engage using
channels their clients increasingly prefer.

While Facebook, Twitter and the pervasive blog continue
to be included in CRM planning, the fact remains these
channels rely more on static "push" messaging than the
infinitely more valuable practice of collaborative
engagement.

Collaborative Engagement

While "traditional" social media channels have their
uses, the most productive interaction with your customers
requires an environment where customers have freedom to
dictate the terms of engagement. Customers are generally
willing to comment, often voluminously, on their
experiences as consumers but they must be allowed to do so
on their terms, with their own voice.

Enter the "social business network." According to
Forrester Research, the "Enterprise Social Software" market
is expected to grow 860% over the next 4 years. Why?
Because collaborative social-business forums have proven to
foster win-win engagement where all participants can be
rewarded for their participation.

For customers, social business forums can become a
trusted source of product recommendations, unvarnished
product reviews, helpful product insights, solutions to
problems, and more. They also offer customers a tremendous
opportunity to collectively leverage requests for product
or policy changes. Moreover, support communities often
provide information that's otherwise difficult to find or
too new to be properly documented by vendors.

Leverage Your Customers

By soliciting your most engaged customers for their
input, opinion, and yes, even their criticisms,
stakeholders can access priceless, real-time business
intelligence that might be too difficult or costly to
obtain by other means. Such forthright and unencumbered
communication can often produce valuable revenue generating
opportunities and/or cost savings solutions.

Further, by opening direct, informal lines of
communication with your most valued customers, you give
them a venue to freely express themselves and increase
their value to you as a customer. Business forums are also
an excellent place for customers to seek and offer
solutions to each others problems, which can result in
higher customer support satisfaction and lowered
operational costs.

Leverage Your Employees

Regardless of economic conditions, most employers work
continuously to reduce operational costs and increase
employee efficacy. Ironically, these same employees are
often overlooked as primary sources of innovation and
improvement. The truth is, employees typically have much
greater knowledge and insight than employers utilize. Smart
employers will work to make that wealth of information
readily available.

By tapping into, centralizing and publishing the
collective body of knowledge possessed by a company's
workforce, myriad improvements become more achievable: